Manga Review: Ousama Game

If you need to catch a break from all the typical Anime shows that revolve entirely around fighting, then Ousama Game is the one for you. This Manga-turned-Anime show received hundreds of horrible reviews online, but it still decided to keep running. Studio Seven, the creator of Ousama Game, stands proud by its work of art.

Ousama Game — The Manga Review

And you’ve got to admit — there’s a lot of beauty in that. They haven’t managed to captivate the audience entirely, but they will continue to try — against all the odds. Either way, Ousama Game is a horror-ish type of story. Even though it didn’t use the best techniques to incorporate the horror genre, one can still enjoy it.

Before I start explaining this Manga and Anime for you (whatever it is you’ve seen first or prefer), we have to make a couple of things clear. First, this Manga doesn’t make a lot of sense very often. You will meet characters that have absolutely no background, and are worthy to the story as much as a mushroom next to the protagonist’s feet. Although, a couple of Anime do pop to my mind where mushrooms carry a lot of importance. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Secondly, the plot doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense. Now, if you’re ready to disown both common sense and character development, you will love Ousama Game. Most importantly, though, Ousama Game supports the view on gambling that many Asian nations have. It’s bad, and it will kill you. This doesn’t mean they are right, but it doesn’t really mean they’re wrong either. It is up to you to decide.

The King’s Game

Firstly, Ousama Game isn’t a literal translation to English — actually, the Manga creators never even bothered about it. If it were to be translated, it would mean the King’s Game — which is precisely the whole story of the Anime as well.

The story takes us into a regular high school with typical teens who only think about their vulgar needs. Everything seems just fine until the entire class of Kanazawa Nobuaki starts to receive texts from the Invisible King. Being so naive and hormonal, the high school kids don’t bother with the texts. After all, it’s probably just some creep from the school’s yard.

But Nobuaki knows better; he was a part of this game after all. He knows what will happen if the participants don’t do as they were ordered. Blocking the King or not submitting to his orders results in a 100% death sentence. It’s something the Anime creators made sure we were aware of from the beginning.

Somehow, Nobuaki ends up having to play the King’s Game all over again, and his first task is to kiss the most popular girl in his school. If he doesn’t complete the task at hand, he will die. Nobuaki already took part in the King’s Game once before, and all of his friends died, making him the only survivor. So he tries to kiss Honda Natsuko quite forcibly, at least up until she physically outdoes him. Naturally, she tells everyone about this little sexual harassment scenario she went through. So everyone ends up hating Nobuaki, although he was simply blackmailed into it. Just as he is about to die for not completing the task, Natsuko finds him and kisses him. With that, Nobuaki gets to live another day.

This is when most of the classmates start to take the game more seriously — especially after they see their friends burst into blood for not completing the task.

Another scene that happens is extremely explicit, so if you’re not the kind who can take it, I suggest you don’t read through this part. One of the boys, Nagata Terauki, is given a task to sexually assault his friend Natsuko. Knowing he will die, he forces himself on Natsuko trying to take her by force, but she turns out to be quite strong. So she manages to push him away with great ease. She tells everyone about what he has tried to do, which results in a mob against him.

Terauki realizes how horrendous his act is, so he offers to take Natsuko to the hospital. Now, remember when I told you that common sense doesn’t mean much in this Manga? This is that part. Instead of taking hurt Natsuko to the hospital, Terauki recommends they all go to the village where the game started. And in this village, they find out a lot about the King’s Game and what it is.

This is where things get quite tricky and confusing. The gang finds out that there is no “King” or person behind the game — it is actually all just a virus. You might think that this is your typical virtual virus like Trojan, for example. But no, this is a human virus that has a brain of its own and somehow managed to become virtual. With that, it found its way into people’s phones and computers. And nobody can kill it — one of the students even tried, and she burst into flames as a result. Not that she minded, because at least based on the art style, she didn’t move a single finger nor scream in agonizing pain. She just sat there and continued talking as she was burning.

How and When Does It All End?

The class is given dozens of other tasks later on in the story. For example, they need to break their own fingers in case they want someone else to get killed. That is the one part of the Manga that actually makes sense. People start breaking their own fingers to inflict harm on those who they hate. It makes me wonder if human nature for a brief minute, and think to myself if it would be any different in real life?

Either way, the only way to stop the virus from spreading is for all the participants to die — including the winner. Once the group realizes this, they decide to all die in order to save the rest of humanity.

Mind you, the writers did hope you would forget about this fact by the end of the season because once they were all dead, the virus re-appeared elsewhere. In case you remember the fact the virus was supposed to die, too bad for you. It isn’t going to happen. It’s out there, and it lives, and it’s to be continued.

Ousama Game Is….Confusing

The final say regarding this Anime would be that it honestly is very confusing. The sole idea of it is somehow incredible, and it has a lot of potential to grow into something fantastic. However, it looks like the writers have lost their way and vision somewhere in the middle. As a result, they created a Manga that, more often than not, makes absolutely no sense. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it though — I think you should. The art style might be average, and the story might have a lot of holes, but there is still something addictive about it. For one, I’ve seen all of it, although I didn’t like it in a lot of parts.

If you’re a fan of horror and thriller genres, try Ousama Game. It isn’t the best out there, but if you’re bored with nothing to do, give it a shot. You can always stop if you hate it.